Finding a Better Way to Manage Debt Management and GASB Compliance
For the City of Beverly Hills, managing debt, leases, and subscription-based IT arrangements meant balancing growing reporting requirements with limited internal resources.
Roza Jakabffy, Accounting Manager for the City of Beverly Hills, oversees accounting and financial reporting functions that include everything from accounts payable and payroll to implementing new GASB standards.
“I’m in charge of the accounting, reporting, and what comes with accounting,” Jakabffy said. “We are facing all the challenges that come with annual GASB implementations.”
Before adopting DebtBook, the City relied on a mix of Excel and other software systems to manage different aspects of compliance and debt tracking.
“We didn’t have a linear straight direction,” Jakabffy explained. “First of all, we had the bonds in Excel and we never entertained any type of software because of the immediate volume of bonds that we have plus one or too many moving pieces. Excel was able to accommodate that.”
For lease accounting, the City initially used Yardi’s GASB 87 module because their lease portfolio was already housed there. However, when GASB 96 arrived, the City realized its existing processes would no longer scale efficiently.
“That’s when we knew the Excel version for the bonds was not going to work,” Jakabffy said. “We did not have a solution with Yardi for the subscription-based arrangements and that led us to explore outside solutions.”
Use Case #1: Simplifying GASB 87 and GASB 96 Compliance
After evaluating available vendors, Beverly Hills selected DebtBook for Subscription Management. But the experience quickly expanded beyond just solving GASB 96 requirements.
“When we started implementing GASB 96 with DebtBook, we were pleasantly surprised,” Jakabffy said. “Not just the product we see from the outside with the pricing, but we then got to see the product now from the inside and how it’s a very well-made product with a very professional team.”
For the City, one of the biggest operational improvements came from reducing the amount of manual accounting work required each month.
“When using another software that was forcing us to do actual monthly entries, that’s 12 times more work than one time a year,” she said. “That’s a huge difference where DebtBook helps.”
Jakabffy also noted that reporting processes became dramatically easier.
“In DebtBook, it’s one push of a button and we can get it summarized, with details, and tie everything up,” she said. “I can testify how much more superior DebtBook is to manual accounting or another clunkier software.”
For GASB 96 specifically, the transition was especially smooth.
“When it comes to GASB 96, DebtBook is straightforward. It works like a charm. We love it, it's wonderful!”
The success of the implementation ultimately led the City to transition its GASB 87 lease accounting into DebtBook as well.
“We decided it was time to go away from Yardi and spreadsheets and get with DebtBook,” Jakabffy said.
Use Case #2: Improving Reporting, Audit Readiness, and Visibility
As reporting requirements became more complex, Beverly Hills needed faster access to accurate information without manually consolidating schedules and spreadsheets.
“The Excel spreadsheet might seem manageable until we run into situations where we need to provide reporting and then it’s a lot of manual work,” Jakabffy said.
Before DebtBook, year-end reporting often required significant manual effort.
“The report didn’t match the expectation,” she explained. “While we had the correct information in a huge data download, we had to spend a day getting the papers to concentrate it into a reporting table.”
Now, reporting workflows are centralized and much easier to manage.
“If someone is asking ‘give me the debt service for up to the end of 2042’ I know exactly what year and how much is principal and how much is interest. If they want me to give it split by fund, I don’t need to go back to the drawing board and ask my people for another day. I just run another report from DebtBook.”
DebtBook has also improved the City’s audit process by helping staff quickly trace balances, reconcile accounts, and support disclosure reporting requirements.
“DebtBook is wonderful. It’s great,” Jakabffy said about the audit process. “We build all of these transactions and we just push a button and record a journal entry.”
When auditors or internal stakeholders requested additional support behind balances, DebtBook gave the team immediate visibility into the underlying data.
“I was able to go into DebtBook and find the report that is going to totally tell me for each asset, liability, amortization, expense, revenue – everything that I was looking [for],” she said.
The City also appreciated that DebtBook separated operational reporting from disclosure reporting requirements.
“It was clearly understood what is needed to substantiate numbers vs what is needed to report numbers,” Jakabffy said. “It’s really good. It fulfills its purpose and data is easy to find. It’s a very easy software to navigate.”
Use Case #3: Moving Beyond Excel and Reducing Key-Person Risk
For Beverly Hills, one of the biggest long-term benefits of DebtBook is creating operational continuity and reducing reliance on institutional knowledge stored in spreadsheets.
“The lease administration by using Excel can easily collapse if it’s just me and nobody is interested in understanding the GASB 87 concept,” Jakabffy said.
She explained that training new employees on complicated GASB standards can become difficult when processes only exist in Excel files managed by one person.
“Maybe another manager comes from private sector and never heard the word 'GASB 87' and is going to be a burden to quickly get familiar,” she said.
DebtBook helped provide structure, consistency, and support that spreadsheets could not.
“This risk can be overcome with DebtBook, where there’s a team to answer your questions so the continuity is guaranteed, rather than having everything in Excel and relying on trust with one team member.”
Jakabffy also highlighted the platform’s AI-powered contract abstraction capabilities and centralized system management.
“I like how the contracts are read and analyzed by AI and recorded so they’re already there,” she said.
For her team, the difference between using spreadsheets and using a purpose-built platform is significant.
"In DebtBook, everything is system-managed. Do you want to be an organized professional system manager, or do you want to be a mom-and-pop small business messy excel organization?”
Exceptional Customer Service Long After Implementation
Throughout the implementation process, DebtBook’s customer support and responsiveness stood out immediately.
“The entire DebtBook team proved above all of our expectations,” Jakabffy said.
The City initially expected to complete much of the transition work manually, but DebtBook helped automate large portions of the migration process.
“We were planning on doing the work ourselves and they said ‘no, we have tools that can spare you manual work’ and they downloaded everything and transferred it for us.”
Jakabffy said the responsiveness and professionalism of the DebtBook team has remained consistent long after implementation.
“It’s so remarkable the technical expertise of anybody on the DebtBook team,” she said. “No matter if I just have a quick question.”
She also appreciated the accessibility of support.
“I like the fact that I don’t need to waste time creating a ticket. I can just type my question in. If it’s midnight I don’t expect it to be answered, and that’s perfectly fine, but the next morning I wake up and it’s there and they know the answer.”
From day-to-day questions to more advanced accounting discussions, she said the experience has remained consistent.
“From the smallest question that I have up to the highest-level question I see the same professionalism,” Jakabffy said. “It’s exceptional.”
A Product Created for the Customer
For the City of Beverly Hills, DebtBook has become more than a compliance tool. It has helped centralize reporting, simplify complex GASB workflows, improve audit readiness, and reduce operational risk tied to spreadsheets and manual processes.
“We were able to see that the product was geared towards the customer and the customer’s mind,” Jakabffy said. “You can feel the importance of the company through the CEO and how he keeps everything very balanced and focused on making our lives easier.”
Today, the City uses DebtBook to manage debt, leases, and subscriptions with greater efficiency, visibility, and confidence.
“It’s such a wonderful company,” Jakabffy said. “Truly.”
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